Apparatus for terminating wires to terminals of partially assembled connectors typically feed a strip of the partially assembled connectors along a guide rail into a workstation where one of the terminals is positioned over an anvil. The wire, its end having been previously stripped of insulation, is positioned in the workstation and the apparatus is activated to cause crimping tools to engage and crimp the tabs of the terminal onto the end of the wire. The crimping tools are then withdrawn and a pusher tool then slides the partially assembled insulated housing over the crimped portion of the terminal to complete the assembly of the connector. Such an apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,048, which issued Dec. 10, 1985 to Cordeiro. This apparatus performs both the crimping and pushing functions in a single workstation. The wire is securely clamped so that after the terminal is crimped onto the conductor, the upper crimp tooling can be withdrawn and the insulated housing pushed over the terminal. Another example of a similar apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,291 which issued Dec. 25, 1990 to Phillips et al. This apparatus also performs both the crimping and pushing functions in a single workstation. However, the wire is not gripped by a jaw mechanism, but rather backup fingers are brought into engagement with portions of the crimped tabs to hold the crimped terminal in position while the pusher tool slides the insulated housing over the terminal to complete the assembly. The backup member then pivots out of the way so that the assembled connector can be removed from the apparatus. A problem associated with both of these apparatus is that it is not known whether or not the insulated housing and the crimped terminal are fully seated. The pushers are operated by air cylinders having pistons which sometimes move at different speeds at different times and occasionally stick and then move again, resulting in unreliable and unpredictable operation. This ultimately results in fully assembled terminated connectors, some of which having crimped terminals that are not fully seated in their housings.
What is needed is an apparatus that crimps the wire and terminal, slides the insulated housing over the crimped terminal, and then determines whether or not the crimped terminal is fully seated in the housing, all in a single workstation If the crimped terminal is not fully seated an error signal should be generated to give the operator an opportunity to correct the problem.